Quick post.
I just started reading Steven Johnson’s new book, Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age and I’m liking it a lot so far (my emphasis):

The popular response to the Miracle on the Hudson encapsulates just about everything that is flawed in the way we think about progress in our society. First, the anomalous crash landing (fatal or not) gets far more play than the ultimately more important story of long-term safety trends. As a news hook, steady, incremental progress pales beside the sexier stories of dramatic breakthrough and spectacular failure.

This point Johnson brings up is especially relevant in light of all the “boring” news around the iPhone 5.
Apple made a dramatic breakthrough with the original iPhone in 2007 and has since been making incremental progress on it ever since. But that incremental progress hasn’t been good enough for the tech press.
One final though before I get back to reading: If the iPhone 5 is boring, what Android phone is making huge breakthroughs?

via 37Signals

via Pinterest

I was digging through the Daily Exhaust archives and came across the entry in 2008 where I retired my Palm Treo 650 after getting the original iPhone.
As I mention in the post, the syncing kept me loyal to Palm. The fact that my 2008 Treo 650 identity, contacts and applications originated on a 1999 Palm Vx is kind of incredible.
Also from 2008 is my first wish for the iPhone:

I want a program that will cache my RSS feeds so I can read them offline.

Yes, people, there was day before Instapaper existed (It was one of the first apps in the App Store in July 2008).
I also think my response to “what is the iPhone’s killer app?” still holds up well:

One answer is that the iPhone itself is the killer application. The way Google Maps integrates with Contacts which integrates with Calendar which integrates with Mail which integrates with Photos and Camera.

The fact that I can get an email from my friend Bryan, click on his name, get taken to his contact page, select his mobile number to call him, and while I’m on the phone with him, click on his address to find out where his apartment is, and then go back to his contact page to get the URL to his site so I can read his most recent entry.

That’s the killer app for me. All of it. Together.

Or:

The other way I could answer the question is – the App Store is the killer app.

To reference my first answer above, the iPhone has solved integrated communications. Every other app is just along for the ride and will be inherently derivative, only able to tap into the various Core Services (email, browser, maps, media playback) and since the App Store is the gatekeeper to all the apps, it’s the most popular application, by design.

Now that I think about it, ‘The App Store’ is a very appropriate name, since what you’re getting with most of the apps is just that – an appetizer.

The iPhone is the whole meal.

Comments are a way to come in and pinch a loaf on somebody else’s couch.

—Merlin Mann, Back To Work

It’s our function as designers to see things others don’t see.
—Don Chadwick

Neven Mrgan talks about pixel art and the art of preserving pixel size:

I’ve made three games whose art style could be described as “pixel art”. What is typically meant by this is “graphics that exaggerate pixels”, with images built of “blocks” larger than the smallest points the display can show. “Big pixels”, right?

I’m often asked this question about those games: do you draw your art at double size? If you think the answer is completely obvious, you’re not alone; I think so too. But since it’s not obvious to everyone, I’ll explain.

It’s crazy to think we’re moving into a post-pixel world.

I must confess: I either forgot, or never knew Dudley Moore was an amazing piano player.
I say forgot because he performed on the Muppet Show, which was one of my favorite shows growing up.

via The Wirecutter via Noah Brier

I was browsing through some old posts, and I found one that’s worth reposting. It’s in regard to the infamous Apple ‘Fanboy’ (aka fanboi)—the term non-Apple-using guys call someone who use Apple products and, dare I say, enjoys using them.
This was me in January 2010:

The thought is, the sales of the iPhones far outnumber how many supposed fanboys there are. Mac owners have always been a minority in the world of personal computers, but Apple ceased to be just a computer maker a decade ago. The iPod is best selling MP3 player in history. While the iPhone doesn’t have those bragging rights, as of Q4 2009 it sold over 33 million units.

People besides Apple fanboys are buying iPhones.

We’re now in 2012 and Apple has sold over 400 million iOS devices (this means iPhones, iPads and iPods). Four hundred million.
Let me repeat myself.
People besides Apple fanboys are buying iPhones (and iPads and iPods).

What’s that you say? Sifl & Olly are back after 10 years with new shows on YouTube?
Oh. Yeah.
So far just a promo and Episode 1.
I definitely missed Chester the most.

What’s that you say? Sifl & Olly are back after 10 years with new shows on YouTube?

Oh. Yeah.

So far just a promo and Episode 1.

I definitely missed Chester the most.